Blog homeI was in discussions with someone today and they sell family holidays. We were looking at how they could add to their existing customer database in order to better target postal promotions.
I don’t suppose anyone knows where to find a database containing all UK families do they? 
[For those of you outside of the UK who think I have finally lost the plot - well the big UK news story today is that the UK government has announced that they have lost 2 CDs full of all personal details (bank numbers, dates of birth, national registration ID numbers, addresses etc) of 25 million UK people (everyone who is in a family). That is 50% of the population! Further information from the UK BBC or The Register]
[And no I wasn’t serious about looking for a database! Besides, at 5 GBP per identity on the black market, I couldn’t afford the 100 million GBP (200 million USD)!]
My own experience of ID / credit card theft
Last week one of my credit cards was used by someone and over £1000 was spent (2000 USD) in 3 online transactions including the London congestion charge and a set of motorbike leathers. What a nightmare! Thankfully my bank has seen sense and have refunded me (although I have had to complete some annoying paperwork).
What would I do with a set of motorbike leathers? Ummm…….
So - what can we tell from all of this?
Data protection and data privacy is going to be a big issue over the next few years - especially as websites move to collecting (and sharing) what is known as “attention data”. (Which is basically what people are thinking and doing, rather than just what they are buying)
Major discussions are going to happen regarding who can see what and how long data should be stored. Just a few weeks ago Facebook got in trouble because some employees were accessing profiles “for fun”.
Actions you can take:
- Shred everything - I don’t just mean at home (which I do) but also at your office. I have worked at some leading travel companies where shredding is a major activity - where they don’t have normal paper bins - just shredding ones
- Restrict data to those who need to see it - and only when they need to see it - for example does your web developer get a copy of every new booking confirmation email in their email? Well this really shouldn’t happen. Do you, when doing system development and testing, use the real customer database - or do you have a “cleansed” version? Developers like using real data as it helps make testing more appropriate (especially load testing etc) but alternatives exist.
- Have two signatures - an idea I picked up from a travel accountant today (thanks R). He signs business documents with one signature and his personal cheques / cards with another. He says that in the UK often business documents get scanned and stored in all sorts of places on enterprise systems - and so by having a couple of different signature styles this helps remove any risks from your real payment signature “escaping” into the wild.
Interesting times ahead. Actually quite frightening if you think about it too hard.
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Just to pick up on one of your points here: 2 signatures. Is this legal? Most of us use one signature in life which identifies us as having agreed something. But taking your suggestion to a polar opposite, is it acceptable to have a unique signature per document agreed. so each time i sign something its unique to that agreement. And if that is the case, this is a form of encryption. A unique stamp of approval - unique to each approval. A unique barcode for example that ties both parties to a common agreement. So individuals authorising anything could be allocated a stock of barcodes to use.
Perhaps not practical, and no doubt security experts have given this more than the 10 minutes thought that your post provoked for me. But just a thought.
But in anycase, how important is your signature in security checks?
Keith
Good post Alex! Would make an excellent CRM database.
It’s looking like it’s all benefit claimants that have lost their details so that includes every family who get child benefit or tax credits.
Shocking to think how lax the controls are in government for data like this.
I too had my credit card cloned a couple of months ago. Seems the thief in question has a penchant for dodgy chav jewelery as they spent cash on Gems.TV…
Steve.